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FIFA President Gianni Infantino is facing fresh scrutiny after the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) filed formal complaints with two FIFA committees over three controversial matters involving the world football governing body.
The complaints, filed with FIFA’s Ethics Committee and Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee (GACC), seek investigations into possible breaches of FIFA’s ethical rules and questions surrounding the organisation’s governance, financial oversight and decision-making processes.
The issues at the centre of the complaints are Infantino’s abandoned plan to allow private investors to acquire stakes in a FIFA commercial company, the decision to suspend the World Cup ban imposed on United States forward Folarin Balogun, and FIFA’s decision to award its Peace Prize to United States President Donald Trump.
NFF President Lise Klaveness, a longstanding critic of Infantino, said the three cases were different but raised common questions about FIFA’s governance, transparency and political neutrality.
According to Klaveness, Trump was a common thread linking the controversies. She questioned whether Infantino had exercised powers that should have been subject to the FIFA Council’s oversight and whether there were potential conflicts of interest or abuse of position.
The Balogun controversy intensified after the United States forward received a red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 2026 World Cup, triggering an automatic suspension. FIFA subsequently suspended the ban, allowing him to feature against Belgium. Trump later acknowledged that he had called Infantino about the matter, raising questions over possible political influence in FIFA’s disciplinary process. FIFA has maintained that its disciplinary bodies operate independently.
The Norwegian federation is also challenging the abandoned FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan, which would have allowed outside investors to acquire minority stakes in a commercial company responsible for running FIFA competitions. The project attracted strong opposition before FIFA abandoned it.
NFF wants FIFA to establish whether the relevant rules were followed in the three cases and whether its internal governance and control mechanisms worked as intended. The federation has also called for relevant evidence and communications to be made available as part of any investigation.
The complaints come as Infantino prepares to seek a fourth and final term as FIFA president at an election scheduled for March 2027. He was first elected in 2016 and has confirmed his intention to contest the election, while no other candidate had formally declared at the time of the report.
The latest challenge adds to growing tensions between Infantino and sections of the international football community over transparency and governance. UEFA has previously criticised the abandoned investment plan, while FIFA has accused the European governing body of running a misinformation campaign aimed at influencing the presidential election.
